WebDAV Custom Property Setting Skill

Set custom metadata properties on WebDAV resources via PROPPATCH requests using curl. This skill enables you to add human-readable titles, Dublin Core metadata, schema.org properties, and any custom namespace-prefixed property to files and directories on a WebDAV server (Virtuoso or any WebDAV-compliant server).

When to Use This Skill

• Setting schema:name or dc:title on WebDAV-hosted resources
• Adding human-readable display titles to files with technical filenames
• Batch-setting metadata across multiple WebDAV resources
• Configuring DAV properties for resource discovery and browsing
• Adding custom namespace-prefixed properties to WebDAV resources

Trigger Phrases

• "set WebDAV property"
• "set custom property on"
• "set DAV title"
• "PROPPATCH"
• "set schema:name on"
• "set dc:title for"
• "add metadata to WebDAV resource"

Quick Workflow

1. Gather Required Parameters

-u USER        WebDAV username (required)
-p PASS        WebDAV password (if omitted, prompt interactively)
-b BASE        Base URL (required), e.g. https://www.openlinksw.com
-P PATH        Resource path (required), e.g. /dav/home/demo/docs/file.pdf
-n PROP        Property to set (default: schema:name). Use prefix:local form
-s NS_URI      Namespace URI for the prefix (optional; known defaults below)
-v             Verbose mode (show generated XML and responses)

2. Known Namespace Defaults

If -s is not provided and the prefix matches a known default, the namespace is auto-declared on the PROPPATCH root element.

3. Set Property on a Single Resource

Example: Set schema:name on a PDF file:

curl -u "demo:demo" -X PROPPATCH "https://linkeddata.uriburner.com/dav/home/demo/docs/report.pdf" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8" \
  --data '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:schema="http://schema.org/">
  <D:set>
    <D:prop>
      <schema:name>Report (PDF)</schema:name>
    </D:prop>
  </D:set>
</D:propertyupdate>'

4. Set Property on Multiple Resources

For batch operations, iterate over a list of paths:

while IFS= read -r path; do
  [[ -z "$path" || "$path" =~ ^# ]] && continue
  filename="$(basename "$path")"
  basefn="${filename%.*}"
  ext="${filename##*.}"
  ext_lower="$(printf "%s" "$ext" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
  case "$ext_lower" in
    pdf) type_tag="(PDF)" ;;
    mp4|mkv|webm) type_tag="(Video)" ;;
    png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg) type_tag="(Image)" ;;
    wav|mp3|m4a) type_tag="(Audio)" ;;
    html|htm) type_tag="(WebPage)" ;;
    *) type_tag="" ;;
  esac
  title="$(printf "%s" "$basefn" | sed -E 's/%20/ /g; s/[_-]+/ /g; s/[[:space:]]+/ /g' | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2)); print}') $(printf "%s" "$type_tag" | sed 's/[[:space:]]*$//')"
  curl -sS -u "demo:demo" -X PROPPATCH "https://linkeddata.uriburner.com${path}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8" \
    --data "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>
<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D=\"DAV:\" xmlns:schema=\"http://schema.org/\">
  <D:set>
    <D:prop>
      <schema:name>${title}</schema:name>
    </D:prop>
  </D:set>
</D:propertyupdate>" -w "HTTP %{http_code}\n"
done < paths.txt

5. Verify Property Was Set

Use a PROPFIND request to read back the property:

curl -u "demo:demo" -X PROPFIND "https://linkeddata.uriburner.com/dav/home/demo/docs/report.pdf" \
  -H "Depth: 0" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/xml" \
  --data '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:schema="http://schema.org/">
  <D:prop>
    <schema:name/>
  </D:prop>
</D:propfind>'

PROPPATCH XML Structure

The PROPPATCH body follows this pattern:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:PREFIX="NAMESPACE_URI">
  <D:set>
    <D:prop>
      <PREFIX:localName>value</PREFIX:localName>
    </D:prop>
  </D:set>
</D:propertyupdate>

Key rules:

• The namespace declaration (xmlns:PREFIX) appears on the root <D:propertyupdate> element, not on the property element itself
• The property element contains only the plain text value
• Use D: prefix for DAV: namespace elements (propertyupdate, set, prop)

Friendly Title Generation

When setting schema:name without an explicit value, generate a human-readable title from the filename:

1. Strip the file extension
2. Replace %20, _, and - with spaces
3. Collapse multiple spaces to single space
4. Title-case each word
5. Append a type tag based on extension:
   • .pdf → (PDF)
   • .mp4, .mkv, .webm → (Video)
   • .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .svg → (Image)
   • .wav, .mp3, .m4a → (Audio)
   • .html, .htm → (WebPage)
   • Other → no tag

Examples:

• ai-compute-race-3-tiers.pdf → Ai Compute Race 3 Tiers (PDF)
• quarterly_report_2026.xlsx → Quarterly Report 2026
• product%20demo.mp4 → Product Demo (Video)

XML Escaping

When property values contain special characters, escape them:

Error Handling

• HTTP 207 Multi-Status: PROPPATCH succeeded (standard WebDAV response)
• HTTP 401 Unauthorized: Check credentials
• HTTP 404 Not Found: Resource path is incorrect
• HTTP 405 Method Not Allowed: Server does not support PROPPATCH
• HTTP 423 Locked: Resource is locked; unlock first or use Lock token header

Scripts

• scripts/set-webdav-resource-property.sh — Full-featured shell script wrapping the curl PROPPATCH logic with argument parsing, batch processing, verbose mode, and namespace resolution.

Getting Started

1. Identify the WebDAV server base URL and your credentials
2. Determine which property you want to set (e.g., schema:name, dc:title)
3. List the resource paths you want to update
4. Run the curl PROPPATCH commands or use the bundled script
5. Verify with PROPFIND

Examples

Set schema:name on a single file

curl -u "demo:demo" -X PROPPATCH "https://linkeddata.uriburner.com/dav/home/demo/docs/presentation.mp4" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8" \
  --data '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:schema="http://schema.org/">
  <D:set>
    <D:prop>
      <schema:name>Presentation (Video)</schema:name>
    </D:prop>
  </D:set>
</D:propertyupdate>'

Set dc:title with custom namespace

curl -u "demo:demo" -X PROPPATCH "https://linkeddata.uriburner.com/dav/home/demo/docs/article.html" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8" \
  --data '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
  <D:set>
    <D:prop>
      <dc:title>Article (WebPage)</dc:title>
    </D:prop>
  </D:set>
</D:propertyupdate>'

Batch set with the bundled script

./scripts/set-webdav-resource-property.sh \
  -u demo -p demo -b https://linkeddata.uriburner.com \
  -f paths.txt -n schema:name -v

Where paths.txt contains:

/dav/home/demo/docs/report.pdf
/dav/home/demo/docs/presentation.mp4
/dav/home/demo/docs/article.html